Dominoes and Superglue
by Frost Mausoleum
Summary: Naruto thought the past would be easily changeable, but it was more set in stone than he realised. Mission failed and hopes for having a family crushed, he arrives back in his time a different person. But can his friends help him remember what he's been fighting for?


"Kakashi thinks you're depressed."

Naruto didn't know how to reply to that, the increasingly familiar bubble of panic rising in his chest as the all-too-familiar conversation was raised again. He decided not to answer. Screw Kakashi and his stupid ideas. It wasn't _his _Kakashi.

_A silver-haired chūnin dangled a pair of orange goggles over Obito's head, smirking under his mask as the Uchiha swiped for them again. "Give them _back_."_

"He might not be the Kakashi you know, but you're the Naruto he knows."

Shit, had he said that out loud?

"Don't be too harsh on him. He's worried about you." Jiraiya fixed his student with an appraising look. "We all are."

"You don't need to be." Naruto realised that his voice had come out completely flat, but he couldn't bring himself to care. This wasn't really his Jiraiya, either. The Jiraiya he knew had been younger and more light-hearted - well, until Orochimaru had defected.

Naruto laid back against the grass, staring up at the clouds. In his first life - or whatever he had had before going back in time, he would sometimes cloud-watch here with Shikamaru. He liked the Nara, despite his laziness and general apathy to most aspects of life. He had gone there with Kakashi and Rin, too, after Obito had died. They hadn't really said anything, but it was one of his clearest memories of Team Seven. Kakashi, who had uncovered his sharingan so that Obito could see the clouds too, had collapsed after a while from chakra exhaustion. Although he had spent a few days in the hospital, they hadn't spoken about it again.

The weather today was the same, even if the people experiencing it weren't. Thin, wispy clouds brushed across the gradually darkening blue sky, like someone had taken cotton wool, teased it apart, and left it to the mercy of the wind to blow it up, up and away. Cirrus clouds. Minato had gone over them with the clouds soon after the team had been formed - the war meant that students had to be graduated faster from the academy and learning was prioritised for the sake of making battle-ready shinobi.

He laid there in silence for a few more minutes, aware yet uncaring of Jiraiya's gaze. Soon enough, as he had predicted, the toad sage stood up.

"Did your bones just creak?" Naruto asked, with a smirk that was only half-forced.

"Shut up, brat," Jiraiya retorted, but something in his face has lightened a little. He leant down a little and ruffled Naruto's hair. "I'm not that old yet."

As the white-haired sannin walked away, Naruto relaxed a little. If he was lucky, the old man would tell Tsunade that he looked a bit happier today - it had been a while since he made any kind of jibe towards him. Then maybe she would get off his back a bit.

Naruto snorted. Not likely. He was touched by her concern, but it just made him miss his mother more.

"Mum, dad," he whispered to an almost navy sky. "What would you think of me now?"

_"We love you, Naruto," his mother had said, even though she was run through the stomach with a massive claw. His father had gazed at him proudly, and had started forming hand seals._

_"We're proud of you."_

All of a sudden, Naruto needed out of the clearing. Proud of him for what? He hadn't managed to change absolutely _anything_.

* * *

A/N - This is an idea I've been playing with in my head for a while. It was inspired by a line in Cloud Age Symphony by slexenskae (which is pretty much the best Naruto time travel fic there is) - I stole the line for my first sentence.

"Kakashi thinks you're depressed."

There are loads of fanfics about Naruto going back in time, but in my opinion not enough that deal with the after-effects. What if Naruto could change nothing at all? How would he react to knowing how someone would die but being unable to save them anyway?

Does anyone think I should continue this? It's just an idea for now, but if people like it I have a vague idea of a plotline.


End file.
